BOZEMAN -- The April 20 lecture by the author of "A House Divided" has been canceled, said Billy Smith of Montana State University.

Fredrick Preston Barton was supposed to speak Thursday on "A House Divided or How the State of Illinois Made Me a Criminal in Louisiana" as part of MSU's Landscapes of the Mind lecture series. But Barton has been called before the Louisiana State Legislature to testify about the University of New Orleans' response to Hurricane Katrina, Smith said. Barton is provost and vice chancellor of the University of New Orleans as well as being a novelist.